Culture Capitals: Two European Cities' Plans for 2017

Although 450 miles of cold and choppy North Sea divide Aarhus, on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark, and Kingston-upon-Hull on the northeast coast of England, the two ports have something in common. Stroll on both refurbished waterfronts and you feel the tides of change. In Hull, the futuristic, pointed prow of The Deep—an aquarium and ocean-research center—thrusts into the broad Humber estuary, while next to the marina, new arts venues and craft workshops are filling the sheds and stores of the old fruit market. On Aarhus’s newly smartened dockside, the dazzling, seven-sided Dokk1 looks like a spaceship, but it holds a state-of-the art library and cultural hub. The reason for all this activity? Both places are 2017 cities of culture.

: a competitive accolade first awarded to Athens in 1985, and now granted to two bidders every year. . The U.K. devised this domestic spin-off, held every four years, after the success of Glasgow and Liverpool as Europe’s Capitals of Culture in 1990 and 2008.